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When shopping for sex toys, it’s easy to feel like a kid in a candy shop. Enter the aptly-named Sugar Popfrom Vibratex. We sent Chicago Sex Specialist Antoinette Hancock home with a free sample and she’s coming back for seconds.

The Sugar Pop is soft, translucent hot-pink elastomer, and has so far consistently sold out in the store, standing out as it does in both color and obvious function: whereas most of their ‘beaded’ toys have two or three rows of beads in a small part of the shaft, most of the Sugar Pop‘s shaft is beads, shiny silver ones, mounted in four dramatically alternating discs. This toy doesn’t just rotate, it wiggles. It also reverses direction, and rotates and vibrates in patterns that are adjustable in both style and strength. It is also, glory of glories, water resistant. These are all the things that would formerly make customers go for an equally expensive unwarrantied mystery-meat rabbit instead of a tried and true Vibratex product. I expect that to happen a lot less now. This is a striking toy that calls attention to itself right away, and it does a good job at fulfilling the hopes and expectations that swim into one’s head upon looking at it.

The soft plastic housing is similar to the Butterfly: round ribbed ‘beehive’ head, ribbed shaft, and the clit critter is a winged, antennae-d, benubbied thing sitting perpendicular and rather close to the shaft. This was the one thing I think could be improved on the toy. Many of their toys have the critter at an angle, and a precious few have it mounted in such a way as to flex easily to multiple angles. The fit on the clit is what makes these babies work so well, so I’d like to see more of them made in such a way that guarantees pleasure to flat and fat vulvas alike. Being on the fatter side, I found the butterfly guy to be wonderfully powerful, but more than a wee bit pinchy on my sensitive button. I think it will pinch half of us; a quarter of us intolerably. Vibratex, heed my cry! More flex to your doo-dads!

"'...speeds ranging from ‘whoa, that’s strong’ to ‘THAT’S ALL I CAN TAKE!’"

As with the Butterfly, the clit stim is strong; that other was strong enough to have been called the ‘clit sander’ once upon a time in our shop. The vibration is deep, rumbly and rowdy. This is not a quiet toy, but the ebullient pink wiggly beadiness is not likely to attract the shyer customer in the first place. The nubbins on the belly of the bug give texture to the vibration, and the wings and antennae can deliver a fine, shivery sensation when held at certain angles outside the body. There are four speeds and five patterns available, the speeds ranging from ‘whoa, that’s strong’ to ‘THAT’S ALL I CAN TAKE!’ The improved variation of function makes this more accessible to someone who needs to vary their clitoral stimulation frequently along the course of their ride.

Rabbit-style toys can be frustrating for some due to the almost impolite thoroughness of their whamming and bamming and thank-you-ma’aming. It’s a great, deep orgasm, but if you blink, you might miss it. This can be avoided by making the toy bend to your will: lots of external rubbing with the vibrating piece before insertion, using lube, inserting slowly once the body opens up with both motors off, and then varying the speeds of both shaft and vibrator according to how much sensation the body can handle without orgasming at each moment. The Sugar Pop, by offering so much more variation, allows the user to draw out this process in hundreds more new combinations. I tend to judge the greatness of a toy partially on how versatile it is, so this is a really good thing. There are four speeds and five patterns for each function, operated by small, responsive buttons on the white plastic handle. It’s easy to use, and that’s another important thing. If your product aggravates my carpal tunnel or someone’s auntie’s thumbs, it’s going to sit on the shelf no matter how strong it is–that is not a problem here. As soon as the user gets a hang of the patterns and combinations, a slow and controlled buildup is simple to achieve… if that is what is desired.

One of the best things about a dual-stim toy is its ability to instigate G-spot and vaginal orgasms, elusive things for some. The combination effect of a rabbit-style toy has taught many people to get there. I’ve already discussed the variability of the vibrator, but the wider, longer, shinier, prettier beaded shaft of this toy gives more stimulation to the vaginal walls than anything I’ve yet seen. I often think it’s easy to ‘tune out’ the sometimes more delicate vaginal sensations in favor of buzzing on the clit and pounding to the cervix. I also think that it’s easier to direct one’s own vaginal stimulation with a partner by being on top and guiding the motion with a swivel of the hips. The reduced friction and controlled internal pressure allow more focus on the vaginal canal itself. This can make it easier to achieve deep vaginal orgasms. It’s not the only way there, but it’s certainly a nice way, and one toys don’t always mimic.

The Sugar Pop does. The counter-rotating discs give a sinuous, up-and-down-and-around massage to the length of the canal when the toy is gently moved in and out, and it has four speeds and five patterns, just like the external piece. It is easier to purposely have a vaginal orgasm, or G-spot orgasm, or squirt with a partner once it’s happened for the first time, and sometimes a toy is what’s called for in order to teach the body these new connections between touch and response. This is a toy I will recommend again and again to people who like strong external sensation but would like to deepen or ‘awaken’ their internal responsiveness. It’s a nice medium size, but firmer than other Vibratex shafts due to the solidity of the beaded section, and very stimulating. With the caveat of a good lubricant, I would recommend this to ‘nice girls’ and size queens alike.

I’m really happy to see where Vibratex is going with their new designs. Water-resistance and patterned functions have become commonplace in the toy world, so many customers consider them necessities even if they’ve never used one before, and adding them allows Vibratex’s higher quality toys to compete with the poorly-made competing products that feature more bells and whistles. Dual stimulation is not for everyone—there are days it’s not for me—but this is one of the nicest toys in this style I’ve seen. The only improvement I think would make a big difference would be a more flexible external piece, but on the days dual-stim is for me, I’m not going to kick it out of bed for one little imperfection. If we were all so picky, the only things in our beds would be comic books, wine bottles and cookie crumbs.